Environmental and social risks of China's Three Gorges Dam

¶ … Gorges Dam

The Chinese government believes that construction of the Three Gorges Dam has helped produce solutions to the country's energy needs, and to flood control (of the Yangtze, the third largest river in the world). The arguments used by the Chinese as to flood control have some validity when a researcher realizes that over the past 2,000 years, there have been "200 catastrophic floods along the Yangtze's banks" (Watson, 2005). Also, because 70% of China's electricity comes from the burning of coal -- which causes choking smog in the big cities and contributes to the greenhouse gases that are causing climate change -- hydroelectric development seems like an alternative to coal-fired power plants.

Six Specific Risks with the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) in China

Meanwhile, what are six risks that the Chinese were willing to take when they built the dam? Certainly one is environmentally related, and Chinese scholars and journalists have warned about pollution and negative impacts to the environment, but their warnings were not heeded. Chinese journalist Dai Qing called the dam "The most environmentally and socially destructive project in the world," and was sent to prison for 10 months for her position (Watson, 2005).

Environment: Journalist Blake Campbell-Hyde points out that there have been increasing numbers of landslides due to the dam. There is a massive amount of erosion that is caused by "…the drastic increases and decreases in reservoir water levels," Campbell-Hyde explains; when the level of the reservoir water rises it creates a body of water "almost as long as Britain" (Campbell-Hyde, 2009). But when the levels drop, the erosion that results can (and does) cause landslides. The New York Times reports that when people were moved to higher ground farmers cleared land to plant crops and "deforestation contributed to soil erosion and destabilized many hillsides" (Yardley, 2007).

Loss of Species: Also plant and animal life has been negatively impacted because of the dam. Flooding in some habitats and the diversion of water in others has disrupted wildlife, Campbell-Hyde continues. When habitat is fragmented, that disturbs the "reproduction patterns of many species," and can lead to loss of species (Campbell-Hyde, p. 2).

Earthquakes: Earthquakes are linked to the dam as well; in May of 2008 a huge quake killed about 87,000 people and there are strong suspicions that because of the "tremendous pressure and fluctuation" caused by the weight of the water on the geologic plates, the dam may have caused that quake.

Pollution: Thirteen cities, 140 towns and 1,350 villages were submerged by the dam; in those communities there of course were waste dumps and sewage facilities and all those toxins and other contaminants are now in the river and in the reservoir created by the dam (Watson, p. 2). And up to 1.35 billion tons of sewage that is routinely dumped into the river annually now has "nowhere to go but into the reservoir" (Watson, p. 2).

Historic Sites: China has cancelled some of the dams it originally planned to build, because those dams would result in destruction to important Chinese cultural sites. Already the TGD has submerged "ancient temples and burial grounds…including the 4,000-year-old homeland of the ancient Ba people" (Watson, p. 2).

Social Impacts: Hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens were forced to leave their homes and were promised compensation for the loss of the value of their homes.

Conclusion -- Suggested Methodology for Mitigating Risks to the TGD

First of all, there should be no projects proposed or funded anywhere in the world that are this enormous, and that have such a draconian impact on the people, the land, and water resources. The future of electrical production must be renewable, and humongous hydroelectric dam projects are not renewable sources of energy. As to mitigating risks, I would never build a dam near a geotectonic plate. The trillions of tons of water can certainly be expected to impact that plate. Moreover, if dams are to be built, people must be compensated fully and provided the resources to build new homes and start new lives, including the land they need that is adequate to raise the crops they traditionally raised (which was not the case in China). Habitat for wildlife and plants must be protected, and overall engineers working on the design of a dam must be environmentally sensitive to all potential impacts.